What evidence is there for associating the Bull of Heaven with the constellation Taurus in the Epic of Gilgamesh?

Question

Several commentaries/translations of the Epic of Gilgamesh seem to associate the Bull of Heaven with the constellation Taurus. It is the bull that Ishtar receives from Anu in order to take revenge on Gilgamesh for refusing her proposal and insulting her in Tablet VI.

For instance, Michael Schmidt writes in Gilgamesh:

In response to her demands, he eventually agrees to lend her the fire-breathing bull (who will become the constellation Taurus), as a weapon with which to kill the man who has offended her.

same in one of the essays in Sophus Helle's Gilgamesh:

The Bull is literally to be understood as the constellation we know today as Taurus (Latin for “bull”).

Wikipedia also mentions this association:

Assyriologists Jeremy Black and Anthony Green observe that the Bull of Heaven is identified with the constellation Taurus and argue that the reason why Enkidu hurls the bull's thigh at Ishtar in the Epic of Gilgamesh after defeating it may be an effort to explain why the constellation seems to be missing its hind quarters.

The source given for this is Gods, demons, and symbols of ancient Mesopotamia by Tessa Rickards et al., which only seems to have this to say about the association:

As a constellation, the Bull of Heaven is Taurus (see zodiac), and it has been suggested that the story of Enkidu throwing the thigh of the bull at Istar attempts to account for the apparent lack of the bull's hind quarters in the outline of the constellation.

As I understand, it's not even sure what part of the bull Enkidu was throwing in the first place (shoulder? haunch? leg?).

I am wondering where this association comes from exactly and what the textual argument for this is. Is there another source that confirms that the Bull of Heaven is supposed to be the constellation Taurus?

Does it even mention anything about constellations ("of Heaven" sounds like it could also just mean that it's something from the gods).

Is this maybe somehow visible from the word choice in the original (Akkadian)?

Answer 1

Mesopotamian astronomy knew two constellations bearing a name relating to a bull. One of these is kusarikku and is mentioned in a few Old Babylonian star lists. It has been identified with Ophiuchus and with Cantaurus, but apparently not with Taurus. In Sumerian texts, kusarikku was most frequently identified with "gud.alim" ("a bull"). Both names, kusarikku and gud.alim, refer to monsters that were defeated by other gods.

The other constellation with a name relating to a bull is gud.an.na, i.e. 'bull of heaven', in Sumerian texts. In Akkadian texts, this name is equated with elu. According to Arkadiusz Soltysiak, "The Bull of Heaven can be definitely identified as Taurus" and his article provides several arguments. He adds, "There is much more evidence for the Bull's connection with Taurus than for that with kusarikku."

One argument is based on the Sumerian story of Gilgameš and the Bull of Heaven ("Bilgames and the Bull of Heaven" in Andrew George's translation). Due to damage to the three surviving copies, we don't have the entire story; Soltysiak writes (emphasis mine):

(…) after a lacuna Inanna demands the Bull of Heaven (gud.an.na) from her father An.(…) In the ensuing dialogue amongst the deities some peculiarities of the Bull of Heaven are announced: it can stir up the waters and leave gigantic cowpats on the earth, its natural pasture is on the horizon and it 'can only graze where the sun rises'.

Presumably based on this, Andrew George paraphrases the relevant passage as follows (page 168):

[Innana's father An] objects that the Bull of Heaven grazes in the sky (for it is the constellation Taurus) and would have no food on earth.

This story served as a source for a similar section in Tablet VI in the Epic of Gilgamesh that introduces the Bull of Heaven in a very similar way. Soltysiak concludes from this that, "It is possible, therefore, that the heliacal rising of the constellation Taurus may be the prototype of the literary motif."

Another text, 'Cursing Agade' (reprinted as "The Cursing of Akkadê" in The Harps that Once...), which describes the fall of the Akkadian empire, says,

Enlil's frowning brow had killed Kish as were it the Bull of Heaven (gud.an.na).

In the above texts, it is An or Anu who can decide whether the Bull of Heaven can leave heaven or not. Soltysiak points out that,

A number of secondary sources suggest that the palace of Anu lies in the region of the Milky Way, between Taurus and Cancer, with the Milky Way interpreted as the path leading to its gate. The Jaw of the Bull of Heaven was called Anu's crown and the whole constellation Taurus was very likely interpreted as the astral attribute of Anu.

Soltysiak also discusses text CBS 7849, which mentions 'Great Bull of Heaven' (gud.gal.an.na; apparently gú.gal.an.na in other texts). Soltysiak comments,

The dying Bull of Heaven's presence in the Underworld might suggest the period of invisibility of Taurus after its heliacal setting (the beginning of April in the epoch when the story was composed) which can be correlated with the conjunction of Venus once in its eight–year period.

However, in this case, there is no full certainty about the identification of Gugalanna with the Bull of Heaven. There are several other later texts where the Bull of Heaven appears under the name of Gú.an.na. Soltysiak also discusses the iconography of the Bull of Heaven, but without transcribing any part of the cuneiform inscriptions on cylinder seals and fragments.

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Sources

• Arkadiusz Soltysiak: "The Bull of Heaven in Mesopotamian Sources" (PDF), Culture and Cosmos, Volume 5, No. 2 (2001).
• The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. Translated with an introduction by Andrew George. London: Penguin, 1999.
• The Harps that Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation, edited by Thorkild Jacobsen. Yale University Press, 1987.